Looking at UltraVires’ posts, he’s not an anti-masker. He says he wears a mask and disagrees with anti-maskers. There’s no reason to think that he would put a veiled comment about anti-masks when he doesn’t hold that view.
I read his comment as saying that the event looks forced because of the necessity of wearing masks, not that masks shouldn’t be required because of course they should, but that it’s sad that it’s now the state of affairs that they are. That goes along with the earlier part of his post where he says that he understands the need for no crowds.
Looking at this video of celebrations around the world, the first part of the video with New Zealand’s celebration and Australia’s celebration (where no masks are required because of their low infection rate) is a contrast with New York’s celebration this year.